Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Quotes of the Morning: The War on American Christmas (tm) part Deux

“KYRA PHILLIPS: Some thoughts now on the subject. Sam Seder hosts the show ‘Majority Report’ on Air America Radio. Bob Knight is the director of the Culture and Family Institute, it's affiliated with the Christian conservative organization, Concerned Women for America.Gentleman, great to have you with me.SAM SEDER: Thanks for having us on.PHILLIPS: Let's start with the holiday card. What do you think, Sam?SEDER: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it's almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.PHILLIPS: Is it a war on Christmas, a war Christians, a war on over-political correctness or just a lot of people with way too much time on their hands?SEDER: I would say probably, if I was to be serious about it, too much time on their hands, but I'd like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al Qaeda.PHILLIPS: I don't think that exists. Bob? Help me out here.SEDER: We have intelligence, we have intelligence.PHILLIPS: You have intel. Where exactly does your intel come from?SEDER: Well, we have tortured an elf and it's actually how we got the same information from Al Libbi. It's exactly the same way the Bush administration got this info about the operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam.PHILLIPS: Okay, Bob Knight, Sam is tying in now the lack of information regarding weapons of mass destruction and somehow moving that into Santa Claus. Help me out here. What's going on? Is this a war on Christians, a war on Christmas? Is this too much political correctness?BOB KNIGHT, CULTURE AND FAMILY INSTITUTE: Well, first I want to compliment him on his dry humor, but this is actually a very serious subject, because a lot of people are waking up to realize that the war on Christmas is really the culmination of a war on faith and the idea that the public square has to be cleansed of any religious expression, particularly Christian religious expression.At one time ‘happy holidays’ was a welcome addition to ‘Merry Christmas,’ so you wouldn't say the same thing over and over again, but a lot of people now see it as a substitute, and it's very gratuitous at times.And it's actually insulting when you're talking about Christmas day or a Christmas tree and you can't bring yourself to use the word for fear of offending someone. In the name of diversity we're a less free country when that happens.PHILLIPS: It's interesting, Sam, because this is a time where, if anything, we want to be even more sensitive to diversity considering everything that's happening with regard to war on terror, we're learning so much more about different religions, different ethnicities and trying to become more of one, versus being segregated.SEDER: Yes, well, Kyra, I mean, listen, I would like Bob to tell me who is the person who has been offended by someone saying Merry Christmas to them? I've never met that person.I don't celebrate Christmas. But if someone says ‘Merry Christmas’ to me, I either think, well, it's a little bit odd, it's like me saying happy birthday to you on my birthday, but no one cares.But I will tell you this, as we wage the war on the war on the war on the war on Christmas on our radio show. News Corp., Fox News, those people who have started this entire war on Christmas mean, fake war, they're having a holiday party.President Bush saying ‘Happy Holidays.’ Tokyo Rose, Laura Bush, saying ‘Happy Holidays’ to her dogs in the video, I'm sure you've seen it. I mean, these are the things that we should be talking about when we are waging this war in Iraq, we should be equating it to the war on Christmas.What else would Bob Knight have an opportunity to do, how else would he get on television if he wasn't pretending to be attacked.” -CNN, “Live From..”, December 12, 2005

“And, as a little background, Mr. Knight hails from the Culture and Family Institute, which is actually a sub-group of the Concerned Women for America, a group who’s web site includes such headlines as, ‘’Hate Crime’ Laws Threaten Religious Freedom’. I think that that really sums up all that you need to know about Mr. Knight’s organization.” -Skippy

“PHILLIPS: Bob, I'm going to let you have the final thought.KNIGHT: OK. You know, when the Nazis moved into Austria in 1936...SEDER: Oh, that's offensive, Bob, to raise Nazis.KNIGHT: They immediately removed from the schools. You can read about it in...PHILLIPS: Hold on, Sam. Let Bob make his point. Let Bob make his point. Go ahead, Bob.KNIGHT: You can't even let me speak. Can you? You're so...Maria Trapp wrote the story of the Trapp singers that's in ‘The Sound of Music,’ and she said she sent her kids to school after the Nazis took over. And they came home and said mama, we can't say the word Christmas anymore. It's now winter holiday. think that ought to disturb people...SEDER: Kyra, that's offensive.KNIGHT: ...that we're moving toward that kind of attitude in this country.SEDER: The Puritans also outlawed Christmas. The founding fathers of this country would fine you in Massachusetts if you celebrated Christmas in the beginning. So don't talk about Nazis, Bob. I think that's really inappropriate.Why do you have to bring hate to this Christmas and holiday season? That's so sad, Bob.KNIGHT: Well, let's go to the Soviet Union then too. They had grandfather frost.Well, it's the truth. You ought to read the book yourself, and maybe you'll change your mind.SEDER: It's just sad that you have to raise Nazis when you're talking about Christmas and the holiday season. And we all know that Christmas actually, Tannenbaum, it's a German holiday. Bob, I'm really, really disappointed in you.KNIGHT: I'm sorry to disappoint you, but if you can't understand the force of history...SEDER: To bring up Nazis, Bob.KNIGHT: I'm not calling you a Nazi.SEDER: Oh, who you calling Nazi? Who are you calling a Nazi, sir?KNIGHT: I'm not.” -CNN, “Live From..”, December 12, 2005